


A Different Kind of Danger

by forwarduntovictory



Series: Pomegranate Seeds [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-13
Updated: 2016-05-25
Packaged: 2018-06-08 03:07:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6836548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forwarduntovictory/pseuds/forwarduntovictory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU | Dr. Caitlin Snow was destined to die in order for Killer Frost to be born. This is everything in between.</p><p>A series of one-shots.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Moment You Let Go

_You die the moment you let go_ , Caitlin thinks to herself.   
  
The thought isn’t enough to startle her — Central City destroyed almost all her senses of surprise — but it’s just the right amount of self-pitying to shake her fingers until she clenches it around the test tube filled with an antitoxin to combat the meta-human the Flash was facing.  
  
Gingerly, as to not spill the solution, Caitlin sets the tube in its rack with the others and leans back. A sigh escapes her. She doesn’t think about the soft white plume escaping her lips to fog the air in front of her.  
  
The first time it happened, Caitlin had checked the lab’s thermometer to see if one of the boys tampered with it again. But the thermometer greeted her with a smile as it displayed what Caitlin feared more than Eobard Thawne or even Zoom — it wasn’t the temperature, it was _her_ . The second time, she was more careful not to sigh out loud. To see it was to make it real and there was just too much that needed to be dealt with for Caitlin to worry that she was becoming like _her_.  
  
A second is all it takes for Caitlin to get her life together. She’s so good at shutting down everything — the fear, the joy, the _hate_ — that it’s second nature to her now. After Ronnie died — the first time — Caitlin shut down so fast, so _well_ , that she was surprised that she hadn’t turned into _her_.  
  
Getting up every morning was a struggle in itself, a fight for life or death. But she was Dr. Snow and Dr. Snow was needed at S.T.A.R Labs to take care of the mysterious coma patient that Dr. Wells — _the fake_ , she thinks now whenever she looks at the real Harrison Wells — brought in. She is so good at it that everyone but Cisco, Dr. Harrison Wells, and now Barry, gives her a berth wide enough to fit a thousand elephants side by side in. _The Ice Queen_ , the whispers reach her ears more than ever.   
  
_Ice Bitch_ , is what they want to say.  
  
She knows that no one would be man enough to say it to her face directly. To do so would have brought on the wrath of Eobard Thawne who needed her. Well, not her. Her had years of medical expertise and a fiancee that loved her more than life. Thawne wanted _her_ , not Caitlin Snow.  
  
Dr. Caitlin Snow-Raymond who is so expendable it is laughable.  
  
Killer Frost on the other hand — Caitlin snips that thought faster than the Flash could run. She is not _her_ , Caitlin tells herself even as the chill that fogs her breath and makes her crave the little touches Barry bestows upon her has her trembling in her seat.   
  
She almost doesn’t hear Harrison barging into her lab. His hair is wild and unkempt, far from the man in the wheelchair with his face, and his eyes beseech her with just the right touch of anger and panic that gets her pin-rod straight in her chair.  
  
“The antitoxin,” he all but screeches, “is it complete?”  
  
“No,” Caitlin confesses, looking at the vials. They’re the same hue of blue that _her_ eyes used to be and her stomach flips. “I need more time.”  
  
“We don’t have more time!” Harrison strides across the room, his arms spread out wide as he paced like a big cat. That’s all he is, really. A little cheetah chasing after the roadrunner. It would be adorable if it wasn’t pathetic. “Barry’s dying out there — we need it now!”  
  
There’s nothing more Caitlin wants to do then spit out, “then you make it,” but she clenches her teeth prettily and says, “the solution should work.”  
  
If it doesn’t, Caitlin will be forever known as the woman who failed to save the Flash. If it does work, no one will ever thank her for it. It’s a thankless job, really. No matter how many cures and solutions she makes, no matter how many times she fixes up the Flash, no one will remember as anything other than that brunette that worked at S.T.A.R Labs. She’ll just be another face.  
  
She squashes the cold rage with an iron fist. Right now, Barry needs her. And that’s more than enough to keep her warm.  
  
For now.  
  
_You die the moment you let go_.


	2. A Kiss to Make the Pain Go Away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The moment Killer Frost kissed him, Caitlin Snow was born.

There is always something explainable in the way the Flash appears. At first, Killer Frost disregards the sudden appearances as part of the whole hero-villain dynamic. If there was no one to foil her diabolical plans, it would be rather boring she decides. But the more he continues to appear to foil her plans — _perhaps even before Frost knows what she’s going to do_ — the more Frost suspects that his interest in her isn’t simply professional.

Not with the way the Flash had her pinned down.

Up close, the blue of his eyes is more gunmetal-blue than anything else. It’s close enough to her own eyes — before she was Killer Frost, of course — but the speckles of shamrock dissuade the illusion of perfection. It makes her grin as he lowers his face to hers. The blue becomes hidden beneath thick, black lashes as his pupils dilated.

Icicles decorated the walls while an orchestra of screams and sirens flooded the air outside as sweet as summer wine. It was beautiful as it was tempting. Alas, to her dismay, the chorus wasn’t to her liking. The Flash had been waiting for her. Weeks of planning thrown out the window the moment she stepped into the Mercury Labs.  
  
“I warned you last time, Killer Frost,” the Flash says. Frost wonders if he realizes he said her name. It sounds dangerous to her ears, like how his counterpart Zoom would say it.  
  
It brings her such delightful shivers.  
  
Her nose crinkles with the thought. She can’t tell if she enjoys it or not as his heat sings to her.  
  
“Did you now?” she replies, a smirk revealing a set of pristine teeth. “Well, since I can’t seem to remember, would you mind jogging my memory.”  
  
When he frowns, the Flash’s eyes darken to a shade of navy.  
  
“I warned you that if you attempted to steal from Mercury Labs again I wouldn’t go easy on you,” he says regardless.  
  
That makes her want to grab the bastard by the neck and watch as every last ounce of heat is sapped from his body, but the special gauntlets the Flash’s sidekick made to suppress her abilities in her hands keep her from doing so. Killer Frost leans her head back, glancing at the bewildered Dr. McGee. Catching her eyes, McGee flinches and whispers something to the police officer that always seems to be wherever the Flash was, Officer East or something.  
  
The reporter was there, too. Quite the pretty girl, too. Tall, long legs, pretty face, and intelligent to boot, Killer Frost knew that there must be something between the Flash and the girl if she appeared with his little gang every time something major went down. A Superman and Lois Lane complex really.  
  
“Easy, huh?” Killer Frost asks. She smirks and raises her head so they’re only a breath away. “You still weren’t fast enough to save all those innocent people.”  
  
If it was possible to frown even more, then the Flash accomplishes it.  
  
“Flash,” Officer South starts, his voice breaking, “that thing just killed five police officers and countless civilians. You need to end this now." He cocks his gun, pushing the safety off. Killer Frost knows that Officer North would do it, too. Putting a bullet through her head would be like killing any other meta-human. But the way the Flash stares him down with such delightful heat pulsing in his narrowed eyes makes Killer Frost know that the super speed meta-human wouldn't follow through with it. He was such a hero after all, and heroes don't kill villains. "Or I will."  
  
"She's still in there," persists the Flash. "I know it."  
  
"She's a monster, Flash! Look around you! There's nothing left."  
  
The reporter gives a sad, little nod. "He's right, Flash. I'm sorry, but Caitlin's dead. She's been dead for months."  
  
“Yes, Flash, listen to what your friend says,” snickers Killer Frost. "Your friend's dead. So just end it now. Before I do.”  
  
This draws his attention back to her. It’s just enough time that not even the Flash’s super speed can stop her from brushing her lips against his. It wasn’t anything special. Flesh against flesh, his lips were surprisingly soft for a man that runs above Mach 2. A little chap but hey, a girl really can’t complain.  
  
A second later, Killer Frost understands that the Flash’s powers weren’t just speed. They were heat. Such delicious heat that tears at her insides as if she was a star waiting to go supernova. If she was the type for sentiment, she’d say that it was the first time she felt alive. But it wasn’t. Firestorm was the — no, not Firestorm. _Ronnie_ , a part of her corrects as the memory of heat overwhelms her. She thinks of Ronnie who loved her beyond life and death, of Dr. Stein who never gave up on her husband, of a doctor with a face that wasn’t his, of a brother of choice, of a boy — no, a _man_ that lights up her world whenever he smiles. Worst of all, when the heat floods her in delicious torment, she remembers a name.  
  
_Her_ name.  
  
Dr. Caitlin Snow-Raymond.  
  
And as she kills Central City’s most iconic super hero, Killer Frost feels as though it’s her who’s dying.


	3. Drunken Sins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jealousy is a dark road.

The thing about heroes, Barry somberly muses, is that they either died a hero or live long enough to see themselves become the villain. There is a fine line of morality, but with each passing year, each bad guy locked behind bars, each new super villain hell bent on world domination springing up, the line becomes like sand. Nudge it enough and the line disappears.

Barry doesn’t know when he crossed the line. He recalls the struggles and tribulations of being Central City’s sterling hero but can’t seem to recall the moments when he doesn’t act as golden as the statues the city erects with each new super villain defeated. He’s always made the best choice — the right choice. And that, he thinks with each swallow breath, is where he lost himself.

The pain swelling in his chest is akin to his atoms being plucked apart molecule by molecule. Slow and agonizing, the pain yields only to the rage as fast and blinding as his speed turning his vision crimson. Yellow and red fight for dominance over his sight. He doesn’t realize that it wasn’t simply because of the ire building itself in his chest. He’s moving and _fast_. Just fast enough that nothing could touch him but slow enough that he’s not tearing the fabric of space-time.

He could, he thinks, as he watches a broad shouldered, dark-haired playboy drunkenly bombard Caitlin with his unwanted, unneeded antics. The man’s handsome and insanely intelligent to boot. Doctorates in aerospace engineering and astrophysics rendered him highly qualified to help solve the Justice League’s little issue regarding one of Lex Luthor’s satellite brigade — the addition of him being a meta-human capable of technokinesis makes him useful not only to Team Flash but to the entire Justice League, and that is why Barry doesn’t just plunge his hand through the man’s chest like Zoom or Reverse Flash would. It’s tempting. But the Justice League Watchtower is not the place to go around murdering people.

It would be bad for morale.

Instead, the fastest man alive materializes besides Caitlin with one arm around her petite shoulder. The sudden de-acceleration blasts the technomage with enough wind to billow his clothes and hair and Barry gives a smile reminiscent of his early Flash years. “Dr. Martin,” Barry says,  “I didn’t know you were still aboard.”

Unperturbed, or too drunk to care, the good doctor nods along. “Yup,” the doctor replies, popping the last syllable, “I was just explaining to Catherine why I —”

The rest flies over Barry’s head. If he wants to listen to a self-conceited arse, he’d have gone to Hal Jordan. The man was still angry about Batman brushing him aside in favour of talking to Barry, so it is always interesting to hear why the Green Lantern thinks he’s better than Barry. But Barry wasn’t in the mood for nonsense. His smile tightens in a gentlemanly way as he turns to Caitlin, who up until this point was staring doe-eyed at him, and grins, “Dr. Snow, I was wondering if you would be available to check out a problem I’m having. I think I might have fractured something during the fight with Lex.”

She freezes, and it takes a moment to realize it’s not because of his words but the proximity of their faces. This close and Barry can see the ice planes of her irises. They’re gunmetal blue, sleek and cold to the touch, but when they land on Barry, he thinks they melt just so. Even in the twelve years they’ve been fighting crime together, they never cease to amaze the speedster.

“I can take a look,” she replies slowly, the alcohol fumbling her words.

Almost everyone at the party was drunk or getting there. Another villain defeated, another party to be had. The only ones not enjoying the party were the Boy Scout, Aquaman and Zatara who were called away by Dr. Fate a few hours before. Batman was shuffled somewhere further into the throng of people that made up the central chamber of the Watchtower, and Barry swore he saw him trying to talk up Princess Diana of Themyscira. Everyone was a little bit of drunk… and a little bit of drugged. A nice sedative courtesy of STAR Labs and a quick jog about had everyone too intoxicated or stoned to see that one of their own would do such a thing. Even Batman wasn’t unaffected.

He doesn’t drug Caitlin though. Never Caitlin.

Grinning ear to ear, the speedster releases Caitlin’s shoulder in favour of her hands. They’re littered with scars — tiny, white things that Barry wouldn’t notice if it wasn’t for the surprising callousness of her hands. They’re chilling to the touch, as if she placed her hands in the freezer beforehand. But her chill and his warmth cancel each other out perfectly.

“Awesome.” And that is that.

Barry all but tugs Caitlin through the throngs to the corridors. Once they reach there, he doesn’t hesitate to scoop her up bridal style and run to her office aboard the Watchtower. It was the only request Barry had put in during the construction of the Watchtower. It was his best move, he thinks as he sets her down.

“Whoa, hold on,” Caitlin breathes, adjusting to the sudden shift. She sways slightly in her heels before landing a steadying hand upon Barry’s bicep. “Okay, let me see it.”

If he was an honest man, he would have confessed then and there that he lied to her. If he was an honest man, he would be back in Central City with his wife and two children instead of in the dimly lit office secluded from the rest of the Watchtower with a gorgeous woman in a blue cocktail dress that pools heat in his core. But Barry Allen has never been an honest man. Not truly, even when he considered himself a hero. Instead, he draws closer to the doctor and settles his hands upon her waist. It wasn’t as voluptuous as Iris’. Caitlin was small in comparison. Delicate like the ice in her soul and twice as sharp.

When Caitlin doesn’t push him away, the pain and rage vanish as quickly as it came. He breathes for the first time in hours. Taking the plunge, he captures her lips with a hunger that leaves her breathless. The soft contours of her lips were tantalizingly familiar to the point that he could have exploded from sheer want then and there.

He swears his heart doesn't break when she breathes, "Ronnie...."

Barry makes sure that by the end of the night Caitlin can barely remember her own name.

* * *

When Dr. Martin turns up dead the next week with a cavity where his heart should have been, Barry frowns, sets up the yellow police tape, and lets the media have their way with it. A few nudges and slight suggestions here and there, and Iris convinces all of Central City that the Reverse Flash was back. It’s true, he thinks, as he trails a wicked hand down Caitlin's exposed back.

He briefly thinks of Batman as he sits on the edge of the bed and watches Caitlin sleep. The bastard probably has it all figured out, he thinks, and it was only a matter of time before the Bat’s contingency plans were put into effect.

It’s all right, Barry decides.

Barry will kill him, too.


End file.
